Claudia Fleming

Last updated

Claudia Fleming
Claudia Fleming on Valder Beebe Show.jpg
Fleming in 2021
Occupations
  • Dessert chef
  • Writer
Organizations
Notable workThe Last Course
SpouseGerry Hayden

Claudia Fleming (born 1958or1959) is an American dessert chef. She grew up in Long Island, New York, and initially pursued ballet. She instead became a professional dessert chef, releasing a book entitled The Last Course. The book attained a cult following, as well as critical praise. She has been featured on Beat Bobby Flay , [1] Chopped , Barefoot Contessa, [2] and Top Chef: Just Desserts . [3]

Contents

Early life

Claudia Fleming grew up in Long Island, New York, born in 1958/1959. Her childhood dream was to practice ballet. However, by the age of 18, she found herself neither tall nor thin enough to continue, and chafed under traditional ballet's strict regimen. She then moved to New York City, aiming to become a modern dancer by the age of 25. In the meantime, she supported herself by working in the restaurant industry. [4]

Career

One of the first jobs she took was as a waiter at Union Square Cafe. The restaurant's owner, Danny Meyer, later wrote in the preface of Fleming's book that he hired her before she even sat down for the interview, commenting that "even from half a room away, I could feel her warmth, poise, and intelligence". She went from waiting tables to line cooking, and then found a job as a pastry assistant at Tribeca Grill. Fleming comments that "once I tried a pastry, that was it for me ... I was hooked." [4]

She received the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Pastry Chef for 2000. [5]

Fleming released her first book, The Last Course, in 2001. The book sold poorly upon release, a showing largely attributed to its poor timing; The Last Course was released in the month following the September 11 attacks. [6] However, the book was acclaimed among professionals; it began amassing a cult following, and Bon Appétit magazine called it "the greatest dessert cookbook in the history of the world". [6] When the book went out of print, used copies began circulating on eBay for hundreds of dollars. The book was re-released in fall of 2019. [6]

Style

Fleming's recipes are credited as being somewhat accessible. Newsday opines that her cookbook is "a great present for an ambitious baker", and that her recipes are time-consuming and involve many steps, if not necessarily difficult. [7] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that the recipes were organized around key ingredients, and complimented her Guinness Stout Ginger Cake as "fun to make, fun to eat, and, like the rest of the book, as stylish as it is timeless". [6]

Personal life

Fleming married Gerry Hayden, a professional chef and her former boss at Tribeca Grill, in 2001. They moved back to the North Fork of Long Island in 2005, [4] and started a food truck in 2010. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Flay</span> American celebrity chef (born 1964)

Robert William Flay is an American celebrity chef, food writer, restaurateur, and television personality. Flay is the owner and executive chef of several restaurants and franchises, including Bobby's Burger Palace, Bobby's Burgers, and Amalfi. He has worked with Food Network since 1995, which won him four Daytime Emmy Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

<i>Salade niçoise</i> French salad with anchovies or tuna

Salade niçoise is a salad that originated in the French city of Nice. It is traditionally made of tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, Niçoise olives and anchovies or tuna, dressed with olive oil, or in some historical versions, a vinaigrette. It has been popular worldwide since the early 20th century, and has been prepared and discussed by many chefs. Delia Smith called it "one of the best combinations of salad ingredients ever invented" and Gordon Ramsay said that "it must be the finest summer salad of all".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Silverton</span> American chef, baker, and author (born 1954)

Nancy Silverton is an American chef, baker, restaurateur, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the United States.

Wayne Harley Brachman is an American pastry chef, cookbook author and television host. He is most known to audiences as one of the rotating co-hosts on the Food Network show Melting Pot, which aired in the early 2000s and featured two chefs per episode cooking foods unique to their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Brachman's segments were co-hosted with Michael Symon. Brachman drew upon his Jewish heritage and Symon cooked family recipes from his Romanian grandfather during their segments which were classified as Eastern European according to the show's categories. Brachman also frequently appeared as a guest co-host on Sweet Dreams, a Food Network dessert show hosted by Gale Gand. He also worked as a spokesman for Hass Avocados from Mexico in the mid-to-late 2000s.

Marcel Desaulniers was an American chef who was part-owner of the Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia, a cookbook author, director Emeritus of the Culinary Institute of America, and self-described "Guru of Ganache". He is the author of the 1992 book Death by Chocolate.

<i>The Best Thing I Ever Ate</i> 2009 American TV series or program

The Best Thing I Ever Ate is a television series that originally aired on Food Network, debuting on June 22, 2009.

Gale Gand is a Chicago-based pastry chef, cookbook author, television personality, and winner of the 2001 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Gand was the host of the Food Network show Sweet Dreams. She was the Chef-in-Residence at Elawa Farm, in Lake Forest, Illinois. Gand is a partner and was the founding Executive Pastry Chef at Tru, a contemporary fine-dining restaurant affiliated with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. Gand and her partners at Tru won the 2007 James Beard Foundation Award for Service. She has blogged for the Huffington Post, was a contestant on Iron Chef America in the 2006–2007 season, and was a judge on Bravo's Top Chef in 2008 for the episode Wedding Wars. Gand was also featured on the Great Chefs television program.

Maida Heatter was an American pastry chef and cookbook author who specialized in baking and desserts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yotam Ottolenghi</span> Israel-born chef, cookery writer

Yotam Assaf Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born British chef, restaurateur, and food writer. Alongside Sami Tamimi, he is the co-owner of nine delis and restaurants in London and Bicester Village and the author of several bestselling cookery books, including Ottolenghi: The Cookbook (2008), Plenty (2010), Jerusalem (2012) and Simple (2018).

<i>I Love Bacon!</i> Cookbook by Ben Fink

I Love Bacon! is a cookbook with over fifty recipes devoted to bacon and bacon dishes, many of them from celebrity chefs. The book was written by Jayne Rockmill and photography was provided by Ben Fink. Broken down into eight sections, the book covered how to make homemade bacon and moves onto "brunch" and "small bites" before covering soups, salads and sides, pasta, fish, meat, and desserts. I Love Bacon! was published in October 2010 by Andrews McMeel Publishing and met with favorable reviews for its unique dishes and helpful culinary tips for novices.

Dale Talde is an American chef, television personality, and cookbook author, best known for competing on two seasons of the Bravo reality television cooking competition series Top Chef: Top Chef: Chicago in 2008 and Top Chef: All-Stars in 2010–11. Although Talde finished in sixth place in both Top Chef seasons, he has been called to guest-judge in the show several times, making him one of the show's most popular cast members. He has also hosted Tastemade's Up in My Grill, was the head judge in Knife Fight season 4, and guest-judged in Top Chef Amateurs, Chopped, Chopped Junior and Beat Bobby Flay. He has also been called to compete on Top Chef Duels, Celebrity Chopped and Iron Chef America. in 2022, Talde was nominated for a James Beard Award - Best Chef in New York. Talde is Filipino-American.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Yee</span> American chef, specializing in pastry

Jennifer Yee is an American chef, specializing in pastry. Born and raised in San Francisco, she worked in several pastry kitchens in some of New York's finest restaurants, including Lafayette in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan as Patissière, and The Grill in midtown Manhattan's Seagram Building, as the opening Pastry Chef, before becoming the Executive Pastry Chef for Chef Linton Hopkins' restaurants in Atlanta. Her work has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation in both New York and Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Tosi</span> American chef, author and TV personality

Christina Tosi is an American chef and cookbook author. She is founder and co-owner with Momofuku of Milk Bar and serves as its chef and chief executive officer. Food & Wine magazine included her in their 2014 list of "Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink".

Dolester "Dol" Miles is an American pastry chef and a three-time James Beard Award finalist. Miles serves as the pastry chef at Frank Stitt's Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama. Miles was named Outstanding Pastry Chef by the James Beard Foundation in May 2018.

Melissa Clark is an American food writer, cookbook author and New York Times columnist. She is the author of over 40 cookbooks and has received multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation and IACP for her work. Clark has been a regular guest on television series such as Today show, Rachael Ray and Iron Chef America and on radio programmes such as The Splendid Table on NPR and The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claire Saffitz</span> American pastry chef and video host

Claire Saffitz is an American food writer, chef, and YouTube personality. Until mid-2020, she was a contributing editor at Bon Appétit magazine and starred in several series on the Bon Appétit YouTube channel, including Gourmet Makes, in which she created gourmet versions of popular snack foods by reverse engineering them. Since leaving the company, she has published two cookbooks, Dessert Person and What's for Dessert, which both became New York Times Best Sellers. She has continued work as a video host on her own YouTube channel and as a freelance recipe developer, including for New York Times Cooking.

Stella Parks is an American pastry chef and food writer based in Kentucky. She has worked in various Lexington-area restaurants, notably Table 310, and was a longtime contributor to Serious Eats. Parks received a James Beard Foundation Award in 2018 for her bestselling cookbook BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.

References

  1. ↑ Dave Paulson (June 27, 2017). "Nashville chef takes on Bobby Flay on Food Network show". Tennessean.
  2. ↑ "Claudia Fleming". IMDB.
  3. ↑ Archana Ram (November 18, 2010). "Top Chef: Just Desserts season finale recap: And the Winner Is..." Entertainment Weekly.
  4. 1 2 3 Moskin, Julia (November 5, 2019). "A pastry chef's book, and life, start again". The New York Times . Archived from the original on September 8, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  5. ↑ "AWARD WINNER". James Beard.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Puckett, Susan (January 15, 2020). "The greatest dessert cookbook in history is back". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution . Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved October 9, 2022.
  7. ↑ Muchnick, Laurie (December 9, 2001). "Sugar and spice". Newsday . Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022– via newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Novick, Susan M. (August 12, 2011). "A lunch truck in disguise". The New York Times . Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.